Guest Blog Post: One Perspective on Commissioning a Painting

This is a guest blog post by Jim S. about his perspective and experience commissioning a painting as a gift for his wife.

Every home deserves great art. After living in an apartment we bought our first home and naturally wanted to make it our own. So after a year of settling in and renovating every wall in the building, it was time to put something beautiful on the walls that wasn’t put on with a roller.

We’ve known Rachel for several years and had seen many of her pieces. We had purchased one of her small prints, but we wanted something different. Only one problem: my wife really liked one piece while I liked a very different piece in a contrasting style. I wanted to surprise my wife with a painting so I began to email and chat with Rachel about what I was looking for.

I explained to Rachel that I wanted a two-panel painting that would effectively merge the two distinct styles into one distinct painting as a whole. In addition, I asked that the two paintings should reflect our individual selves coming together in our own lives. We spent time talking about sizes, framing options and she even took time to note the colors on the wall and the lighting and the place in the room where the painting would be hung.

After receiving the down payment, Rachel got to work on our vision. To really get my wife’s input, Rachel let her look at the concept drawings asking for her opinion on a “piece she was doing for a client”. That input helped shape the final version of the painting.

Finally the day of the unveiling arrived and we traveled to see the finished work. Completely surprised, my wife was ecstatic with the result, and I couldn’t have been happier. Rachel took my vision and created a everything I imagined and more. We were so pleased with it that we moved the painting to a more prominent space in the home. So now the first thing a visitor sees in our home, is this beautiful work of art.